Hoping and praying Prime Minister will promise to deliver on prostate cancer

Across Australia, hundreds of men with advanced prostate cancer are praying that a brief encounter with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Thursday will deliver the promise of a life-extending therapy.

For four years they have been waiting for a therapy that has the ability to reduce the secondary cancer in their bones.

Bone metastases can be intensely painful and cause weakness and fractures. These impair quality of life and, in some cases, cause death.

The therapy, which uses radioactive radium 223, was approved for use four years ago but is being held up by a regulatory problem that they hope the PM will resolve.

Over the last four years, Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia has been advocating to enlist Radium 223 in the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme (PBS). This treatment, otherwise known as Xofigo, reduces bone metastasis, lessens pain and improves quality of life in men with advanced prostate cancer. An audience with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in Queensland tomorrow may assist in progressing the legislative change to get Radium to those who need it.